Unsinkable Cayenne

Summary

When her unconventional parents finally agree to settle down in one place, twelve-year-old Cayenne’s dreams come true—but the reality of fitting in is much harder than she imagined. Acclaimed author Jessica Vitalis crafts a historical novel-in-verse set in the mid-1980s, about belonging, family, and social class.

As Cayenne enters seventh grade, her parents decide it's time to stop living in their van, roaming from place to place. Cayenne hopes that this means she will finally belong somewhere and make some friends. But it turns out that staying in one place isn’t easy at all.

When her social studies class learns about the Titanic tragedy, as the wreckage has just been discovered and her teacher is obsessed, Cayenne sees more and more parallels between the social strata of the infamous ship and her own life.

Will she ever squeeze her way into the popular girls’ clique, even though they live in fancy houses on the hill and she lives in a tiny, rundown home with chickens in the front yard? Is it possible that the boy she likes actually likes her back? Can she find a way to make room for herself in this town? Does she really want to? Maybe being “normal” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

This literary novel is for fans of Meegan E. Freeman’s Alone, Erin Entrada Kelly’s We Dream of Space, Lisa Fipps’s Starfish, and Jasmine Warga’s Other Words for Home.